Staff report
Fort Loramie’s Jared Hoying was in the starting lineup Monday night for the Texas Rangers in left field, making him the first Shelby County native to play in a Major League baseball game.
Hoying had been on quite a hot streak for Round Robin, Texas, the Rangers’ Class AAA farm team, of late and when the big club put Shin-Suu Choo on the disabled list Monday, they turned to Hoying to fill his spot in the outfield Momday against the Angels.
Hoying was coming off a game for Round Rock Sunday against El Paso that saw him go 4 for 6 with two runs scored and five runs batted in. He had a double and a home run, and had two hits in an 11-run third inning for Round Rock.
Last Friday, also against El Paso, Hoying was 2 for 5 with a run scored and five RBIs, four of them coming on a grand slam in a seven-run second inning.
He was hitting .319 for Round Rock, with team highs in RBIs with 32, stolen bases with 13, doubles with 10, triples with three and hits with 51. He was also second on the team in runs scored with 27.
Hoying, a left-handed hitter, was a 10th-round pick out of the University of Toledo who has been in the Rangers’ farm system for seven seasons. In his fourth season at Round Rock, he was hitting .319 with seven home runs, 32 RBIs, a .409 on-base percentage and .550 slugging.
“He has had a tremendous first month-and-a-half of the season,” general manager Jon Daniels said. “Not only the power and the plate discipline, he also runs the bases well, plays great defense. It was an easy recommendation for our guys.”
The Rangers elected to call up Hoying rather than Delino DeShields, who was optioned to Round Rock on May 13.
“No. 1, the way Jared has played, it’s an easy call,” Daniels said. “No. 2, replacing Choo, a little left-handed power with Jared made sense. Third, we sent Delino down to work on some things and we want to let him continue to work on things.”
In Hoying’s Major League debut Monday night, he was 0-for-2, reaching on an error in his first at-bat before striking out in his second. He was pinch-hit for in his third scheduled at-bat.
The Rangers lost to the Angels 2-0.
The two teams met again Tuesday night and also play tonight in Texas.
